News From Mr Smith

Dear School Community Members,

50 Questions to Ask Kids! Recently, a parent and I was discussing some research that highlighted the huge benefits of parents/guardians and their children having regular conversations about learning, play, dreams, friends, happiness, emotions, creativity … and the list goes on. Our discussion focussed on the research that indicated a rapid decline in these discussions and chats families engage in. With this in mind, I have attached a poster of ’50 Questions to Ask Kids’ that would stimulate these ever-important discussions. I encourage families to consider using some of these questions to have a regular conversation with your children – this could be at the dinner table, incorporate in your child’s bedtime routine or even when driving. 

Education Week: Like all schools across Victoria, Mano is celebrating Education Week in the week of Monday, 13th May.

This year’s Education Week theme is, ‘Spotlight on STEM’. Our activities throughout the week are aligned to this theme.

Education Week is an opportunity for Mano to showcase our wonderful school and the opportunities and experiences that take place every day.

Events include:

• Education Week launch at assembly: Monday, 13th May 9:05am
• School Tours for Prospective Families: Tuesday, 14th May  9:30am and 12noon
• Open afternoon for current families: Thursday, 16th May  2:30pm

We warmly encourage all families to join us at any of the activities throughout the week. Further information will be provided over the coming weeks from our Education Week committee.

Student Learning and Student Voice: In the coming weeks, we will be conducting a survey to find out what our students think of our school. The ‘Attitudes to School’ survey is an annual survey for students in Years 4, 5 and 6. The survey is conducted by the Department of Education and is designed to assist schools in gaining an understanding of students’ perceptions and experience of school. Our school will use the survey results to plan programs and activities to improve your child’s experience at school. All responses are anonymous. The survey will take approx. 30 minutes to complete and will be conducted during class time. The results will be reported back to the school community at the end of July.

Annual Implementation Plan 2024 - Wellbeing: The wellbeing of our students is of the highest priority. Whilst our data reinforces the success of our wellbeing programs and approach at Mano, throughout 2024, we will continue to embed our whole school approach to health and wellbeing – see attached model. Led by Mrs Forsyth and the Wellbeing School Improvement Team, we will be utilising our Health and Wellbeing model to build resilience among our students. Part of this plan is for students to participate in the PERMAH survey (a survey to measure the wellbeing of students) and their teachers utilise this information to develop wellbeing plans. This work has commenced, and we look forward to sharing the impact in the coming months. Mrs Forsyth is also working with a Mental Health and Wellbeing consultant to implement ‘Wellbeing Conferences’ for our students. This concept is very similar to the practice of our students engaging in regular Numeracy, Reading and Writing conferences. Using the information from the PERMAH survey, teachers will meet with students to conference on their wellbeing and develop goals to maximise their wellbeing. Once again, we look forward to sharing updates of this work next term. A huge shout out to Mrs Forsyth for her leadership, commitment and passion in this space. 

Staff Professional Learning – Analysing Reading Assessment: At our Staff Professional Learning session on Tuesday afternoon, staff engaged in analysing our most recent Reading assessment, DIBELS. Led by Mrs Geary, teachers examined their class and individual student data and begun developing group and individual learning experiences. While our ‘Reading’ results have historically been exceptional according to NAPLAN and other metrics, we continue to invest in our purpose of every student having access to high quality instruction with minimal variation across the school.

Supervision: As a staff, we are committed to our ‘Duty of Care’ and ‘Yard Duty and Supervision’ policies (can be found on our website) to maximise the safety of our students.  A friendly reminder that our grounds are supervised by school staff from 8:50am until 3:40pm. Outside of these hours, supervision cannot be guaranteed and our Duty of Care policy is not applicable. Families of students who are on school grounds outside of these hours need to contact our Outside of Hours School Care provider,  VilliageOHSC. 

School Pride: As the cold weather ‘kicks’ in and students begin to wear winter items of the School Uniform, I remind families of our Student Dress Code policy that is available from the school website. Recently, we have had to remind students of the correct uniform. This includes non-Mano jumpers and hoodies are not to be worn to school and for safety and health reasons, students with shoulder length or longer hair must be tied back. I ask families to support us by reinforcing this with their children.

Thank you for supporting our school and have a great week.

Christian Smith